The present invention relates to a showcase in which a shelf for displaying commodities is disposed in a display chamber constituted in a main body, a front-surface opening of the display chamber is openably closed by a see-through door, and illumination devices are vertically attached to the main body on an inner side from the edge of an opening.
Heretofore, in this type of showcase, a pillar is disposed in a vertical direction in the center of a front-surface opening edge or on each side of the opening edge, and a fluorescent lamp is attached to the rear surface of this pillar to illuminate the inside of the display chamber from the front side (e.g., see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-224150 (Patent Document 1) and Japanese. Utility Model Registration No. 2546302 (Patent Document 2)).
Here, conventional illumination by the fluorescent lamp will be described with reference to FIGS. 10 and 11. FIG. 10 shows a front view showing an illumination state of a part of a reach-in showcase 100, and FIG. 11 shows a partially enlarged sectional view showing the illumination state of FIG. 10, respectively.
A main body 101 constituting the showcase 100 has such a substantially U-shaped section that the front surface of the main body is open, and the main body is constituted of an outer box 102, an inner box constituting a display chamber 104 therein, and an insulating material with which a space between both the boxes is filled. In the display chamber 104, a plurality of stages of shelves 107 . . . are disposed in a vertical direction. Moreover, in the front surface of the inner box, a plurality of pillars 106 are vertically disposed on both left and right sides of the front surface and in portions with a predetermined space between the portions and the sides, and each of doors 105 . . . which openably close the front-surface opening of the display chamber 104 is provided between the pillars 106. One side end of this door 105 is rotatably supported by the pillar 106, and the door can be rotated around the one side open.
Moreover, on the rear surface of this pillar 106, a fluorescent lamp 108 for illuminating the display chamber is vertically installed. It is to be noted that in FIG. 10, to clearly show the attachment positions of the fluorescent lamps 108, the lamps are shown on the front sides of the doors 105, but the fluorescent lamps 108 are actually provided on the rear surfaces of the pillars 106 positioned in the display chamber 104. In consequence, commodities displayed on the shelves 107 in the display chamber 104 are illuminated by the fluorescent lamps 108.
Here, light emitted from the fluorescent lamps 108 provided on the rear surfaces of the pillars 106 is diffused from the outer surfaces of fluorescent tubes constituting the fluorescent lamps 108 to illuminate the display chamber 104. However, the light from the fluorescent lamps 108 is diffused toward the display chamber 104, and hence the centers of the front parts of the shelves 107 cannot be irradiated with a sufficient quantity of light. In FIGS. 10 and 11, a hatched portion is a portion to which a sufficient quantity of light is not supplied and which therefore becomes dark.
Thus, positions away from the fluorescent lamps 108, that is, the centers of the front parts of the shelves 107, a portion around a top plate of the display chamber 104 and a portion around a deck pan are darker than the other portions, and there is a problem that the commodities cannot sufficiently be illuminated. In particular, in the showcase 100 where the commodities are displayed toward the front surface of the showcase, the commodities in front portions on the shelves 107 need to be illuminated, but the commodities on foremost parts of the shelves 107 which can be seen through the see-through doors 105 cannot be illuminated. In consequence, the display and presentation effects of the whole showcase lower, and there also has occurred a disadvantage that the commodities around the centers of the shelves expected to promote purchasing most cannot be illuminated.
Moreover, since the pillars 106 are provided, any commodity is not displayed on the shelves 107 positioned behind the pillars 106. However, since the fluorescent lamps 108 are provided on the rear surfaces of the pillars 106, the light from the fluorescent lamps 108 is emitted even behind the pillars 106, and the light is uselessly diffused.